In closed testing: request early access · Compromisos cumplidos.

Commitments, carried out.

Parmenas (say PAR-meh-nus) is the member-owned co-op platform that helps a cooperative keep its promises to its members, its board, its volunteers, and its community. Built for member-owned food co-ops and buying clubs, it is currently in closed testing with partner cooperatives.

Request early access Watch the films

Why Co-ops Need One Shared Book

Goodwill does not fail a cooperative. Scattered records do.

Many member-owned grocery co-ops run on five separate spreadsheets, a counter binder of paper shift sign-ups, and an accounting file only one tired volunteer knows how to open.

Nobody starts a neighbourhood food co-op to spend Sunday nights matching spreadsheet files by hand. Yet as a cooperative grows past its first fifty households, improvised tools begin letting people slip through the cracks.

Parmenas My orders screen for Riverbend Community Market showing two member buying-club orders, totals, pickup status, and left-hand navigation — Parmenas My orders screen for Riverbend Community Market, showing member order history and pickup status in one place.

Before · Binders & Spreadsheets

Separate files that never match

Every task lives in a separate place, and the person at the counter does not see the same numbers as the treasurer.

Scattered share records: Partial share payments get lost between old email threads, and Spanish-speaking households receive English-only notices.
Paper shift sign-up sheets: Volunteer work hours written in pencil by the scale take weeks to reach the checkout counter.
Year-end dividend dread: Weekends spent hand-merging checkout sales exports with member lists before the annual meeting.

After · Kept in Parmenas

One dependable book for the whole co-op

In closed testing, Parmenas keeps member equity, work shifts, elections, buying-club splits, and patronage in one shared place.

Shared member records: Equity payments, household standing, and preferred language (English or Spanish) stay together in one place.
Earned discounts at checkout: Completed volunteer shifts update household checkout eligibility without hunting through paper binders.
Clear patronage calculations: Member purchases, cash payouts, and retained equity calculate from the same shared records.

Slide to compare before and after:

What Parmenas Does · In Closed Testing

Seven connected areas for the people who keep a co-op running.

Parmenas does not ask a neighbourhood grocery co-op to talk like a corporate chain. It gives members, board directors, store staff, volunteers, and the treasurer the plain pages they need to keep their part of the promise.

Each of the seven areas below works from the same shared records in English and informal tú Spanish. Open any area to see how different roles in the cooperative use it.

Person holding a black clipboard and handing brown paper shopping bags to another person in front of a dark brick wall — Handing off a packed paper-bag order against a checklist at pickup.

01

Members & Ownership

Track member households, paid-in equity shares, payment installment plans, authorized shoppers, and English or Spanish language preferences.

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02

Patronage Dividends

Attribute eligible member purchases during the year and calculate cash payouts and retained patronage equity for board review.

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03

Board & Elections

Run verified one-member-one-vote board elections with live quorum tracking and keep bylaws, board packets, and approved minutes together.

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04

Volunteers

Post work-shift calendars for pack-out, receiving, and stocking where completed hours update household working-member discounts at checkout.

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05

Buying Club

Pool household pre-orders to fill wholesale cases, print household box labels, and adjust weights or supplier shortages on delivery day.

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06

Finance

Keep member share capital, house accounts, and retained patronage reserves organized with clean summary exports for your accountant.

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07

Store Tools

Look up member households quickly at the counter, check active working-member discounts, log local farm deliveries, and print shelf tags.

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03 · Everyday Cooperative Scenes

Three moments in the life of a co-op.

How the seven areas work together on Saturday morning, on annual election night, and at fiscal year-end.

Volunteers unloading produce boxes from a van into a community building

Saturday delivery and morning pack-out

Local farm crates and wholesale cases arrive at the door. Working members check in on the volunteer shift calendar to unload the van and divide bulk sacks and fresh produce across buying-club households.

When the morning shift is marked complete, each volunteer's household account receives its working-member discount for the month, ready at the counter before they buy their own groceries.

Household case splits organized Volunteer hours credited for checkout

Parmenas Elections screen and neighbours gathered for a meal in a community hall

Board election and community hall supper

Before the annual gathering, every active member household receives its ballot and candidate statements in its chosen language (English or natural tú Spanish). Neighbours who prefer paper ballots check in at the store counter, where staff mark their household as having received a ballot without seeing their choices.

As members gather over supper in the community hall, quorum is tracked from the member list, one-member-one-vote tallies are reviewed, and the approved minutes are saved for future boards.

Quorum tracked: 1 member share = 1 ballot Inglés y español incluidos

Cashier in a green apron holding a head of lettuce at a grocery checkout counter while talking with a smiling shopper carrying canvas tote bags, with four customers waiting in line behind her

Checkout counter at the grocery co-op, where eligible member purchases are recorded

Every checkout basket feeds year-end patronage

Every time a member checks out at the register, Parmenas links that basket's eligible total to their household record. At fiscal year-end, instead of spending weekends wrestling spreadsheet formulas across exported sales logs, the treasurer opens the annual patronage view with every household's purchases already totaled alongside their share standing.

The board previews a 20% cash and 80% retained allocation, approves the run, and publishes clear patronage statements to each member household.

Eligible member purchases totaled from checkout Cash & retained equity recorded

The Story of the Name

One of seven chosen for the everyday work of fairness.

Nearly two thousand years ago, a young community faced a problem that still sounds familiar.

Its members had promised to share what they had and to look after one another. Every day, food was set aside for those who needed it most. But as the community grew, some of its people (widows who spoke a different language from most of their neighbours) were being overlooked when the food was handed out.

No one had stopped caring. The problem wasn't a lack of goodwill. The community needed a dependable way to carry out its commitments.

So it chose seven people it trusted, known for their fairness and good sense, and gave them the everyday work of making sure the sharing was done well, and done fairly.

One of the seven was named Parmenas.

History tells us almost nothing else about him. It remembers only that he was trusted with the ordinary, essential work of fairness. We chose his name because of what that moment represents: good intentions need good structure.

That principle is the foundation of Parmenas. It gives your co-op a dependable way to keep its promises, so that as you grow, no one is overlooked.

Short Films

Watch the films.

Both films use private video previews. No external scripts or cookies load until you select play.

Cashier in a green apron holding a head of lettuce at a grocery checkout counter while talking with a smiling shopper carrying canvas tote bags, with customers waiting in line behind her

Still from the film: checkout at the grocery counter. A concise walk through member equity, patronage dividends, board elections, volunteers, buying clubs, and store tools.

Volunteers unloading cardboard produce boxes from a white cargo van and carrying them through the open double doors of a community building

Still from the film: volunteers carrying produce boxes from a delivery van into a community building. The story of Main Street cooperatives, the appointment of the Seven, and why good intentions need good structure.

Hosting, Languages & Support

Built for small co-ops on simple hosting: self-hosted, in English and Spanish.

01 · Simple Hosting

Runs on modest hardware

No complex cloud clusters or steep server bills. Parmenas runs on standard PHP and MySQL shared hosting (such as cPanel) or a modest computer in your co-op office.

02 · Self-Hosted & White-Label

Your co-op owns its records

Member records, purchase histories, and ballot tallies belong to your cooperative. Inside the app, your co-op's own name and colours take centre stage.

03 · English & Spanish

Every household welcomed

Full English and natural tú Spanish across member screens, volunteer shift calendars, election ballots, and receipts, so no neighbour is overlooked.

04 · Remote Viable Food Support

Backed when you need a hand

Self-host on your own, or pair Parmenas with optional Remote Viable Food support covering initial server setup, migrating existing member and equity spreadsheets, automated off-site backups, and software updates.

In Closed Testing

Want to try Parmenas with your cooperative?

Parmenas is currently in closed testing with partner food co-ops and buying clubs. Request early access for your cooperative, or read the frequently asked questions first.

Request early access Read the FAQ